


Her New Present

by DesertVixen



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-27 23:25:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5068921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gillian Taylor reflects on her new present...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her New Present

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lah_mrh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lah_mrh/gifts).



Gillian Taylor leaned over the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge, and watched the whales swimming in the bay below. It was George and Gracie and their offspring, of course – these humpback whales were the only ones of their kind in existence.

Like her, George and Gracie had been brought from the past in a desperate attempt to save Earth from an alien probe that had been wreaking havoc in an attempt to communicate with an extinct species. Apparently there was some deeper meaning to the whales’ song other than playing a role in the reproductive cycle, although no one knew exactly what. Gillian wondered just what George’s song had meant, but it had apparently been the right answer as far as the probe was concerned. Maybe it had been something as simple as “So long, and thanks for all the fish”? 

Efforts to track the probe’s route had turned up no concrete evidence.

Technically speaking, bringing her into the 23rd century with the whales hadn’t been part of their plan, but Gillian had refused to be left behind by the man who’d told her he only worked in outer space.

Sometimes Gillian wondered what the people in 1986 thought had happened to her – searching the available records had not yielded much information. She sort of hoped she’d made it onto an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. Gillian could envision Bob reporting her missing, the police finding her abandoned truck in Golden Gate Park with her purse inside, the fact that she had disappeared after an emotional confrontation at work, and no trace of her to be found.

She really hadn’t had a life outside her badly paid job – parents long dead, little time for friends or romantic relationships.

The future – or rather the present, she supposed – was a pretty cool place. Gillian had eventually gotten past the point where everything made her gawk like a tourist, as well as the part where she felt like a tourist attraction – or lab rat, in some situations – herself.

Gillian had done a three-year stint on a research ship, filling in the gaps in her knowledge and getting used to twenty-third century science, but when it was over, she had come home.

She had missed Earth and its oceans. They had been thoroughly mapped, explored, and cataloged – that had made up the bulk of her leisure reading for a few months – but there was still plenty to learn.

It hadn’t been just scientific knowledge that she had needed to catch up on either. People were still people, she guessed, but society had definitely changed. Gillian had been blown away the first time she had seen a pair of women sharing a passionate homecoming kiss – and no one else had blinked an eye. 

It had been treated as totally normal. It was no different than a man and a woman, or two men – just two people in love.

Gillian was attracted to men – she’d been attracted to Jim Kirk – but in general, she had preferred women. There had been a few short relationships, but she had been too absorbed in her work to find anyone else.

She was looking forward to changing that soon, in this new century.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I hope this scratches your Gillian Taylor itch!
> 
> Unfortunately, I discovered AFTER I wrote the story that Unsolved Mysteries actually didn't start until 1987, but it was too good to take out. What's one more little time glitch in that story, though?


End file.
